It is well known in the prior art to provide a vehicle body closure panel, such as a rear deck lid, which is hingedly mounted and spring loaded for movement to an open position. A latch assembly is mounted on the panel and has a latch bolt which is spring biased to an unlatched position. When the deck lid is slammed to a closed position, the latch bolt latches with a striker mounted on the vehicle body to latch the panel in the closed position. The latch assembly traditionally includes a detent lever which holds the latch bolt in the latched position and a key cylinder for releasing the detent lever from the latch bolt so that the latch bolt is spring biased to the unlatched position releasing the panel for movement to its open position.
It is also well known in the prior art to provide a motorized pull down mechanism for pulling the panel to the fully closed position, thereby eliminating the need for the user to slam the panel. The pull down mechanism traditionally includes a housing mounted on the vehicle body and having the striker mounted thereon by a motorized vertically movable drive unit for movement between an extended position and a retracted position. When the striker is extended, closing movement of the panel causes the latch bolt to engage the striker so that the panel and striker are latched together. This engagement closes a switch and energizes the motorized drive unit to retract the striker and thereby pull the panel to the fully closed position. When the panel is returned to the open position by operating the key or by remote electrical operation from inside the passenger compartment, the motorized drive unit moves the striker from the retracted position to the extended position in readiness for subsequent engagement by the latch bolt upon closing movement of the panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,153 by David E. Compeau et al, assigned to the assignee of this invention, provided an improvement in the aforedescribed pull down unit in which a cam mechanism was provided in association with the latch assembly to cam the detent lever to the position releasing the latch bolt in response to initial upward opening movement of the latch assembly by the motorized striker so that the latch bolt would be spring biased to unlatch from the striker and thereby free the closure panel for spring loaded movement to the open position.
The present invention provides a further improvement in the release mechanism of U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,153 and has the latch assembly mounted on the motorized drive unit and a cam lever projecting from the latch assembly to engage a cam fixed mounted on the body panel to thereby release the detent lever from the latch bolt upon movement of the latch assembly in the extended direction